When you’re under pressure, things get challenging. Pressure is a huge topic. I highly doubt you can remember when you were first introduced to it the first time, because it happens so early in life. Throughout life, there are so many moments you encounter pressure… and that’s when you have a choice to make. What do you do with it? What do you let it do to you? Are you going to run from it and hope it won’t catch up? Or are you ready to face it with courage in order to overcome and deal with it?
You see, if you decided to run from it, it won’t do you any good. When we don’t deal with it, it starts to stress us out. If we allow it to stress us out and don’t deal with it then, it turns into anxiety. Do you see where I am going with this? I am going to be completely honest with you here, until not too long ago, I had no idea how to deal with pressure. I didn’t know what to do with it. Instead, I would stress more and more about the situations, and I would even let it get to the point where it would start affecting me physically. That’s not good nor healthy for you! So, let’s start dealing with it from here on forth, shall we?
When It All Hits
Take a short moment and think about some moments in your life. There were moments of very high pressure, while others were lower. But it doesn’t matter whether it’s high or low, both of them are very important to be dealt with. One is not less important than the other.
At one point or another in life you experienced pressure. And at one point or another, you have to face it. Think about it when it comes to work pressure at your job. One of the questions almost every job asks you during the interview is: “How are you operating under pressure? How do you handle it?”. Why do you think they ask that? Because there will be moments of pressure when you work guaranteed.
With life comes pressure. It is not avoidable. There are situations you go through that come with it. As you grew up, your family probably gave you pressure every now and then. In school, you probably constantly had moments of it. Whether it was because of exams, deadlines, peer pressure or group pressure. It is very common from the very beginning.
When it Comes to Adulthood
As you get older, you face financial pressure. Family pressure. Economical pressure. Perhaps when you’re in sales, there is pressure. When there are goals that need to be reached, it brings pressure. Even just aging itself can put pressure on you, let’s be real here. Being under pressure is very realistic. That’s why it is so important to know how to deal with it and be able to handle it. Because if you don’t, it damages emotionally and even physically in the long run.
When you’re playing sports, you have to face pressure. So many sports have handling pressure drills. You don’t get to run from being under pressure when you play a sport. Kids that were involved in sports do a lot better with it than the kids who didn’t. Why? Because oftentimes, kids that weren’t involved, probably didn’t have anybody showing them how to handle those situations gracefully. So when they had those situations coming up, they got mad, they got frustrated, they were discouraged and felt beat down. Some had meltdowns and weren’t sure what it meant to get back up and try again.
Handling It All with Grace
With that said, let’s get a little bit deeper into facing and handling it going forward. When we’re talking about handling it, we are pointing to the concept of managing, controlling or dealing with pressure. We can do it, we just have to find out how. When we don’t do that, excessive pressure brings emotional and psychological problems that are associated with stress. And it doesn’t stop there. It also brings the behavioral and physical issues with it as well.
Now, how do we do this? When under pressure, how do you start using it for your good? There are people that are actually using it as their motivation. That comes down to personal preference though. But there really are people that feel a lot more motivated when they are under pressure to reach their goals and accomplishing great things during those moments because of the pressure they are under.
Step by Step, One at a Time
First and foremost, don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic. I know it’s most definitely easier said than done, especially when you’re caught in the moment. But the moment you start panicking, you give the pressure control. Please realize that any of the strategies you use won’t magically have it disappear. But they help you to cope with it instead, in order to overcome it.
Handle pressure gracefully. When under pressure, recognize and acknowledge how you feel during that time. Don’t judge yourself for it. Instead, accept what you feel. Pointing out the emotions you feel, reduces the confusion during those times. With the clarity, you start to process what you’re feeling and slowly make sense of what’s going on. When you call out a feeling, you take some of the pressure off of it.
When under pressure, you need to have self-compassion. Focus on the top priorities, while giving yourself a break with things that don’t matter so much. Go easy on yourself, you are absolutely allowed to do so! To prioritize is really important when under pressure. But someone said to me before, if you have more than three priorities, you have none at all. The purpose of priorities is to do the most important things first and focus on one task at a time. It’s when we focus on four, five and six things at the same time when pressure starts hitting.
Don’t Forget Your Boost
Find out what it is that boosts your mood. During pressure times, make sure you take breaks and do something that boosts your mood. Maybe it’s listening to a specific song that boosts you up. Call a great friend to laugh about something with. Perhaps you want to take a short walk and take deep breaths. Whatever it is you need, take those breaks.
I can’t say it enough, but it is so important to have the right people in your corner. Especially for times when you are under pressure. It is okay to reach out to the people you surround yourself with to be encouraged, supported and lifted up. When you have the right people in your circle, you get understanding. You get to talk to people to gain better understanding.
Know how much you can tolerate. You have to be honest with yourself about it. Because if you’re not, you’re allowing yourself to take more on yourself than you can handle. That’s when it becomes intolerable.
Don’t Forget About Yourself
Taking good care of yourself when under pressure helps you focus and gives you energy, which is definitely needed. I can’t say it enough… Set Boundaries! Don’t say yes to things you don’t want to, or know is too much for you to take on. We are not here to people please. Keep in mind what it does to you and how much it puts on you, to constantly do things for everyone around you. No more people pleasing.
Don’t forget to recharge! Face the pressure that life brings, but then recharge to balance it all out. Set time aside to recover. If you don’t, you are going into overload mode. There is no benefit in that mode for anybody. The only thing it does is bring exhaustion to you. You don’t want that. So make sure to remind yourself to recharge!
Stay Unflappable
Here is one more strategy to end this week’s blog out with that works for me. A person once explained to me the word ‘unflappable’. Yup, that really is a word. That word actually means to stay relaxed and calm under pressure. No joke. Because I thought that word was hilarious, every time when I feel it coming on, I start thinking of that word. I laugh, every time. Then, because it makes me laugh, it brings the whole feeling of it down a lot. Try it sometime and see what it does for you. Stay unflappable 😊!
In life, you simply can’t avoid it. And keeping a certain level of pressure in your life actually ensures that you are developing resilience and strength. So, it’s good to a certain degree… once you start to cope with it and handle it. Find a healthy balance. When under pressure and you dealing with it in a healthy way, it gets you out your comfort zone and you’ll achieve greater things.